State Police today were trying to sort out countless loose ends involving the attempted murder of a Baltimore businessman found near a road in Sykesville yesterday after being stabbed and beaten.

The victim, Frank Allan Storch, 34, of the 6700 block of Westbrook Road in northwest Baltimore, had multiple stab wounds to the abdomen and head injuries, was in serious but stable condition today at the Maryland Shock-Trauma Center in Baltimore.

Mr. Storch was flown there after being spotted by motorists as he walked along Arrington Road west of Marriottsville Road No. 2, police said.

He is president of the M. Leo Storch Management Corp., a small real estate development company based in Lanham. The company manages several shopping centers, mostly in Prince George's County, said Kathy Coakley, property manager.

State Police at the Westminster barracks said Mr. Storch was spotted about 3 p.m. by the driver of a Carroll County school bus while she drove several students and by another motorist, who called 911.

"The scenario of events preceding his discovery are quite a mystery to us," Chuck Jackson, a State Police spokesman, said.

"The last anyone here [at the firm's Lanham headquarters] saw him was Tuesday when we left the office, Ms. Coakley said. He was here when we left" around 5 p.m.

She said "the family asked for us not to give any information."

Investigators were waiting to interview Mr. Storch about unconfirmed reports that the man was abducted while on a business trip in Bowie.

Mr. Jackson said the man apparently called his wife from Shock-Trauma. Doctors overheard him talking about being forced by a man and a woman to withdraw money from a bank machine at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Mr. Storch reportedly was then driven to the Sykesville area.

"There are so many loose ends," Mr. Jackson said. "We are going in 40 different directions."

Police were looking for Mr. Storch's car, a 1989 light blue Lincoln Continental with state tags WSW-981. "We don't know how long he wandered in the woods before the school bus driver spotted him," said a sergeant at Westminster barracks.

Police got word last night that a plastic bag with belongings of Mr. Storch was found at a landfill in the 600 block of W. Patapsco Ave. in South Baltimore.

Police said his driver's license and a gun permit, a shirt with blood on it, pants and a hat were in the bag. Mr. Jackson said Mr. Storch was a licensed private investigator.